


I'm getting old, and I need someone to rely on

by malfoysamortentia



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, M/M, Not really sure where it's gonna go, Peter is chatty chatty CHATTY, Stephen owns a café
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-26
Updated: 2019-03-15
Packaged: 2019-07-17 23:51:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 2,828
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16106351
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/malfoysamortentia/pseuds/malfoysamortentia
Summary: Fall has reached New York and Stephen is ready to start again.He is broken, but things might take interesting turns.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Sooo hi everybody!  
> I know this chapter is short, but it's just an introduction.  
> The title of the fic is inspired by Somewhere Only We Know.  
> I don't know what else to say so idk have a good night! Feel free to let me know what you think about this, even if you find it disgusting!

This place is finally shaping up under his eyes, he can’t help but wonder whether things would have gone differently if it all didn’t happen, but it’s not worth it to think about it now. Stephen lays a hand on the wooden counter, Led Zeppelin still playing lightly. He still remembers the day he told his grandpa he wanted to open a café, he looked him in the eyes and just told him to go chase whatever dream he had. That was the last time they spoke, and the guilt was still working its way into Stephen’s chest. Often, he thought about dropping the whole project, but at that point he had to go on and make that little man proud. So now here he is, it’s 6AM, it’s Monday, it’s October, it’s going to be a great first day, he feels it in his bones. He turns the signal on the door and waits. Lots of people pass by with their grumpy work faces, not giving a second glance and, right when he’s starting to lose hope, a young boy comes in.

Stephen doesn’t know how to describe him, the boy is like fairy light on Christmas, the first flower to open up to the sun when spring comes, he looks like pure joy.

“Jeez it’s cold out there!” he says rubbing his hands together “wow this place is like, SO COOL! Have you just opened? I’m always late, though, so I may just have missed it, I guess.”

Stephen isn’t able to socialize with teens. Damn, he couldn’t do it when he was a teen himself, it’s unlikely he can do it now. But then again, it would feel rude not to answer. Why couldn’t his first customer be one of the busy grumpy faces? He wouldn’t have liked that. For how hard this could be, he’d rather have a hundred chatty boys than ten men in suits.

“Hmm yeah, actually this is the first day. Grand opening…” he says, looking at the empty place.

“Man, this is insane! Like, look at how cool that bookshelf is and OH MY GOOD I can’t believe you have The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy! Great taste in books… So, what’s your specialty?”

“Well, I don’t really have a specialty right now, cause I’ve just opened, but I guess I can make a decent coffee and- “

“Oh no no no, no coffee for me! It makes me agitated. Do you have chocolate milk?”

He’d never thought his first customer wouldn’t even buy coffee. It’s a damn coffeeshop! And yeah, he obviously has chocolate milk, but it’s his personal reserve and he surely wasn’t planning on sharing it!

“Sure, I’ll go get it.”

“Thanks man!

Peter is gonna be late for school, he knows it damn well. He’s gonna end up in the detention and he’ll have to watch that Captain America PSA, _again_. The fact is, he was helping a little old lady with the groceries when the café caught his eyes, and no one had entered in twenty-five minutes. So, when he greeted the old lady, who insisted on giving him a handful of toffees, he just had to go in there. And even though the barista looks a bit cold, he knows someone who would really like this place.

“Here’s your chocolate milk. Aren’t you late, kiddo?”

Peter glances at the phone and it’s so much later than he was expecting it to be. He places a five-dollar bill on the counter end heads for the door in a rush.

“Hey! The change…”

“ISSARIGHT! Guess tomorrow’s chocolate milk will be on you. Oh, I’m Peter by the way!”

“I’m Stephen” he replies, but the boy is already out on the street and waving him goodbye.

A group of girls come in, without even bothering to greet him, and Stephen finds himself wondering if there is no in between. It’s surely gonna be one hell of a long day.


	2. Chapter 2

Tony takes that damned old phone out of his pocket, again. He’s gotten addicted to it, he needs to know where it is, he needs to know if it’s charged, he needs to able to reach it in case it rings. It never does. Gets in the car, greets Happy, checks one more time just to be sure.

His therapist says he should try and leave it home, sometimes, so he’d know everything would be alright with or without it. He doesn’t care. He didn’t even wanna see a therapist, but Peter was worried sick, so he promised, and now he is stuck with that awful woman who always smells like lavender, which he hates, and has greasy hair that remind him of goddamn Bucky Barnes. He goes there twice a week, pretends to listen, then goes home and drowns everything in whiskey. This is how you do it, this is what good old Howard taught him. A couple of times Peter had found him passed out on the couch, so now he tries to reduce the number of drinks. It’s hard. He compensates with coffee, and given the quantity he used to drink, that’s probably worse.

FRIDAY announces that they’re about to arrive, and Tony is proud. He’s going to Peter’s scholastic science fair and, not to be over dramatic, he’s pretty sure the kid’ll win. He’s created synthetic spider webs and can shoot them and maneuver them as he pleases. A phone buzzes and for a second Tony’s hearts stops beating, could this really be…?

“Running late, I’ll see you inside Mr. Stark! Again thx a lot for coming LIKE WOW!” FRIDAY reads out loud and the car seems to be a little bit colder, the sky duller, he really hoped it would be the right time. He takes out his flask. Just one sip, he thinks, it’ll be enough and I’ll be calm and I’ll be cool and I’ll be as good a person as Peter thinks I am. Fact is, whiskey really goes down like a bitch: it burns and leaves you craving more and more. When Happy stops in front of Peter’s school, the flask is empty.

“Sir, I don’t think you should go inside”

“Shut the fuck up, FRIDAY, if I had wanted a nanny, Pepper would be here.”

Happy is pretty concerned too, and even though he knows this is gonna end up bad, he does the only thing he can to stop him from going him and ruining everything.

“Tony’s sick. Please come out ASAP.”

Five minutes later, Peter’s outside and heading to Mr. Stark’s car.

“Happy what happened? You always refuse to write me texts!”

“HEY KIDDO I’M SO HAPPY TO SEE YOU!”

“I’m happy too, Mr. Stark”

Happy approaches him. “I’m sorry you had to leave the science thing, I know how much it matters to you”

“No, it’s alright. Ned’s there. I care about him more.” For a split second they just look at Tony fighting the security belt. “Shall we go for a walk in the park? Someone’s in need of fresh air. And possibly a mint”

It hurts to see Parker take care of Tony. Happy still remembers how it was _before_ , when Tony was all wit and sassy comebacks and, sure, he still is like that. But most of the time he’s just wrecked. He still feels guilty for what happened with Steve Rogers. And he feels guilty for what happened to Jarvis, and Pepper, and Rhodey. 

Tony met Peter right when things were starting to go to hell. Maybe one week would have done a big difference. Cause lately, Tony is only happy when he’s with Peter and Happy knows it shouldn’t be like that. He knows he should try and convince them both to reduce the number of hours they spend together. People are already speculating. Happy hid the number of The Sun with that big “IS MYSTERY BOY STARK’S NEW TOY?”. Happy doesn’t know whether Peter has seen it or not, but if it does it sure hurt as hell.

Obviously, that’s not the kind of relationship they had, and everybody knows that the reporter who wrote that article is an asshole. But he doesn’t want them to end up suffering.

But as he watches them walk through the park, Peter sustaining him and Tony laughing, he realizes. Tony would probably kill himself if he didn’t have Peter in his life, cause this messed up father-son relationship they have is the only thing that’s keeping him here.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WELL I CERTAINLY WASN'T EXPECTING TO COME UP WITH THIS.  
> Anyways, this is the last "introduction" since we now also have Tony.  
> As always, thanks to each one of you who reads, leaves kudos, bookmarks or decides to leave a comment. I really appreciate it.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HELLO THERE!
> 
> This was FINALLY the last introductory chapter.  
> I won't be able to post more than once a week, cause I'm back to work.  
> THANKS FROM THE BOTTOM OF MY HEART TO EVERY PERSON WHO READS, LEAVES KUDOS, COMMENTS YOU ARE GREAT.

It turned out Peter knew people stranger than him. He came back to the café that same afternoon with a very drunk Tony Stark, that one person Stephen had despised his whole life, and a tall man named Happy, and that wasn’t even his weirdest feature. They wanted coffee to help the billionaire sober up.

Unexpectedly, Stephen found him pretty entertaining. To be honest, he found him pretty, period. Didn’t feel the need to tell him, though he was sure it became evident as soon as Peter defined The Whitesnakes’ Here I Go Again lame, Tony gave him a 10-minutes lecture on how classic rock was better than “that modern shit” and he then proceeded to try and impress him with his ginormous knowledge of the subject.

The truth is, even though almost no one had entered the café, this had been one of the most peaceful days in the last years. He had fun, was able to talk to people he knew very little of, made fun of Peter for constantly trying to bond with Happy. It felt just right. It reminded him of the times when he still was a surgeon and Christine worked with him and they’d end up eating Chinese on his floor after 27 hours spent in the hospital, it kind of felt like family back then. Right now, just the thought of Christine hurts like hell.

It all started to go down when way more than he could help wanted him. At first, he had tried to take each case, two months later he was home on the verge of a mental breakdown looking at the alarming high number of people who had no insurance, considering the troubles he’d get into if he’d accepted and, for once in his life, he decided to be selfish. He focused on the cases who’d actually provide him money, the ones who’d help his career, and ended up being a selfish prick who used to work too much and spend to much and just be an awful human being in general.

Then the accident happened, denial. Trip to Kamar-Taj, denial. His grandpa got worse, denial. He started working on the café and his father was disappointed, denial. His grandpa died, denial.

Stephen is now sick of all this. He’s suffered enough in his life to know that it all could end in the bat of an eye. When the car crashed against the rock he thought it was only right. But now he’s alive, he has a second chance and he has no intention of wasting it.

When Peter enters the café the next morning, he has a strange smirk on his face.

“So… hmm… that’s a strange bunch of people, for a teen…”

“Yeah, I guess so.”

“They seem nice, though.”

“They are.” Stephen wants to know what’s so amusing, but he knows better.

“Chocolate milk?”

“YAAAAS, thanks.” Peter looks around. “You know quite a lot about classic rock, don’t you?”

“As you said, Peter, dinosaurs know a lot about Paleozoic era. Though that’s inaccurate…”

“Yeah okay but it’s not like you’re as old as Mr. Stark. You must be, like, 34?” he smiles typing something on the phone.

“Jeez boy do you really think 34-year-old people have this much white hair? I’m 45 kiddo.”

“45? Woah” 

***

Peter is sincerely impressed. Stephen looks younger than that. If he didn’t have that trembling problem, he’d probably be flawless.

“Bye Stephen, I’ll see you tomorrow.” He waves goodbye.

“Have a good day, Peter.”

The boy is just outside the café, sipping on his chocolate milk, when he texts Happy.

_ “The guy is 45. Operation Happy Ending is starting NOW :D:D” _


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is so short it can't even be considered an actual chapterbut I guess this can happen when you're just a ball of anxiousness and work and tiredness.

Days went by and Stephen began to notice just how often the trio paid a  
visit to the café: they were now meeting daily and, customers allowing,  
the hours he spent just chatting with them were his favourite ones.  
Stephen can't seem to understand where this luck is coming from. He  
still misses his old life like crazy sometimes, and sure, living in  
hell is probably more pleasant than most of his customers, but still he  
finds himself thinking that another month has passed and Tony doesn't  
even hate him! YAY! It's like Peter, Tony and even Happy, don't see  
what an arrogant dickhead he is and this is totally crazy. Sure, Tony  
probably doesn't see it cause he must be the only person more arrogant  
than Stephen in the whole galaxy and Happy gets paid to agree with him  
but Peter... so young and naive.  
He's been acting really strangely lately. He's always on that damn  
phone, fingers moving too fast for him to understand what he's writing.  
He has brought a couple of friends during this month, too, and they all  
seemed okay. One of the girls, Sheryl? Sharon? is here for an exchange  
and is dying for one of the Stark Industries' internship but Tony  
doesn't seem too keen on giving her what she wants. The other girl only  
seem to be hanging out with Peter and his friends cause she's got  
nothing better to do, but if you pay attention you'll notice just how  
much she cares for them. The dude, by the way, is kinda creepy. He's a  
big nerd and really clever but he's always whispering in Peter's ears  
and asking him when he's gonna bring the  
other guy. The one thing that was clear the last time they'd  
been here was that there was some kind of big event at their school and  
none of them had a date, which was probably due to the fact that they  
only hang out with Tony and by themselves but Stephen knew better than  
to say it out loud.  
Peter finally spilled the beans one afternoon, when Happy wasn't there.  
"So guys you know there's some kind of vintage themed party at my  
school in a week and you know you really should come, and I swear I'm  
not saying this just cause I promised I'd bring a couple chaperones, I  
mean I guess you could actually like this? It'll be like jumping back  
in time, the good old days... things like these."  
Except, it was not. It turned out that their idea of vintage was the  
early 00s and not the 80s as they were thinking. HOW COULD ANYONE SAY  
THAT BRITNEY SPEARS WAS VINTAGE?!  
"So Stephen, remind me why I accepted"  
"Your kid wouldn't shut up about how this was going to be great and how  
going out would be good for you. So now we both trapped in here."  
"It sound plausible, I hate you."  
"Tony... I've been wanting to ask you this for quite a while but it  
never looks like it's the right time and I know we don't even know each  
other that well so feel free to punch me in the face or something like  
that but what's going on? How are you now, for real?"  
And Tony Stark doesn't like talking. He surely doesn't like talking  
about how he feels. But there's something about Stephen, there's an  
aura he radiates. It feels like talking to Yoda, if that makes sense.  
So he just lets go.  
"Let's say that more or less one year ago, I was working with a team.  
We were asked to regulate our modus operandi following some rules and  
not all of us agreed. So there was a big fight, I'm not gonna tell you  
the details cause you wouldn't believe me, and I ended up with only  
three members of my team. The others are now waiting for trial, I  
guess, and the one who was supposed to be my right hand man, kind of  
like... a best friend... has left me damaged,  
only to then send me a letter saying he'd be there if I ever needed  
him. Never heard of him again."  
Stephen tries to remember whether he has read something about Tony  
Stark in the papers, but nothing comes to his mind. Probably cause he  
was still training.  
"This is awful. But how do you know Peter?"  
"He was on the team, he stood by my side. Now they won't talk to him  
either. I can't let him go. I know I should and it'd be the best for  
him, but he's the greatest thing to ever have come into my life and I  
can't give him up."  
And just like that Stephen knew that for some reason he couldn't  
explain, Tony trusted him.


End file.
